May, June and July 2019 - The Catch-up on all Things Family

The family has been busy and so have we so I just need a few pages to catch up on what was happening in the spring and summer.

First, Cameron went on his first official date, the junior prom.  He has turned into handsome.

This next picture is the Dixie Arena where we attended and helped with the area youth indexing event.  During the week of the event, the youth indexed over 250,000 names.  It was awesome.

The kids enjoyed the pool while dad worked on installing the solar panels.  I love all the stickers on the panels.  We are definitely identified. 

As soon as we came home from our around the world trip, we planted our garden.  It looks great now and it did produce some tomatoes and peppers this year. We are learning.

We always love when Adrian has tickets to Tuacahn because she comes to visit, of course it doesn't take much to bring her and Taylor down.  We enjoyed the hike over to Paradise and touring the old Church there. 

It was up north for us to Kacy's pre-school graduation and some - well called on account of rain baseball with Tyce and Mason.

 Marc was at Maker Faire in San Francisco, but all the rest of his family attended their little Kacy's graduation.  I love the pink boots!

This picture of the triplets is precious and we hope they will be called on missions. 

Grandma and Grandpa had a great time staying with Mason, Ali, Tyce and Kacy while mom and dad went to Boston.  Always good to see the parents do something for themselves.

This was the first time in probably 40 years that I braided a little girls hair and put another one in a pony tail.  My hair just isn't that long!

Sun, Sun Everywhere - Captured on our house NOW!

We returned from our around the world trip on April 10.  Theron had been watching our solar system engineering closely and we were able to pick up some of the brackets and other small items to start the solar install.

Theron started immediately when we returned and submitted for permits from Washington City.  As he was working on this, we received a call from Glen and Kristi Davis, who we met in Yuma, Arizona.  They were coming home and volunteered to stay in St. George for a couple of days and help install the solar brackets.  What a big help.  It went rather quickly with two people working on it.  So now the electrical wiring, new circuit breaker boxes and the racks are all in place.  The panels were delivered and waiting.

A week later, we received the solar permits and inspection and the panel install was a go.  How do we get the panels from the ground to the roof?  McGyver to the rescue.  This little (well actually it was big) contraption - pulley system was devised just for that purpose.  We installed three or four panels by ourselves and then the weekend came and Curt came to help.  Tyler Sprague (a part-time neighbor) came to help and within three hours the panels and inverters were installed, the system was ready for final inspection.

Just two days later, they changed the meter and we were now in solar business. 

39 panels
12 Kw system

The Rome Temple

We did the walk off disembarkation and caught our shuttle bus into the city arriving at the hotel all before 9:00 am. We left the luggage, bought our metro card and went immediately to the Rome Temple. It is beautiful. There is a visitor's center, Temple housing and a stake center all located on the Temple compound.

 This is a cut-away that is in the visitor's center so you can see what the interior looks like.  We didn't get a chance to do a session on this trip.

It sits in a rather industrial section on the outskirts of the main city. Probably because land is so prime and this complex needed lots of it.

Some of the group didn't think we could do the Temple and the colloseum all in one day, but we did including walking through the Roman Forum. Traveled 23,000 steps today.

 This is the entrance to St. Peter's Square and Vatican City.

I love Italian food, but on this trip, it seems we picked some of the worst restaurants.  We couldn't convince the group that just a little out of the way place is much better than trying to find a "nice" restaurant.  However, the gelato was perfect!

This was General Conference weekend and so our nights were spent listening to conference sessions.  Technology is wonderful.

We have been to Rome several times and so this is just a collection of pictures for us to remember this trip and previous trips.

Naples - The Great City of Pompeii - April 5th

Pompeii, Italy, a place I never thought I would see in my lifetime and a place I have now been to three times.  Each time we discover new things.  This time was the first I had walked to the Colosseum and the chariot race track.

We also just wandered this time and saw many more frescoes on the walls of homes and just common rooms. 

This is a wheat grinder with the baking oven in the back ground.

The streets are interesting in that they have large stones in the middle.  They are placed so the chariots and carts can travel down the road, but the people can step on the stones without stepping in the water and sewage of the road to cross from side to side.  This other picture is showing a fast food place.  People would stop here and buy soups and other things to eat.

 Theron is in the baths and the wall behind shows how they left a space so the hot water could flow up the wall and heat the room.

The baths are always a favorite spot as is the main entry square of the city. 

We were able to see most of the human casts that were made in the excavation.  These tell great stories of the instant deaths and sufferings of people who put their hand over their mouth and eyes to prevent the volcanic ash from being breathed in so quickly.